What is seemingly a perfect family like in the house when it is time to welcome a non-family member as new family?
Kisapmata is a black-box theater adaptation of a film with the same name launched at the 7th 1981 Metro Manila film festival in 1981. The 1981 film was adapted from the 1961 story entitled “The House on Zapote Street” written by Nick Joaquin, who at age 59 became a National Artist in Literature in the Philippines in 1976. More than forty years later, March 7, 2025 was the launch of its theater adaptation, entitled, Kisapmata, shown at the Blackbox Theater, Tangalang Ignacio Gimenez, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Pasay City. The show is about a daughter marrying a man, both of whom struggled under the daughter’s parents. With only four (4) characters: the father, mother, daughter, and son-in-law, the company creatively work out themes on a small stage timely for today’s audiences.
This time, in a Blackbox theater, characters become live on stage where audience watch from the side as if part of the scene. Characters sitting and stepping like stairs by the edge of the platform gracefully form part of the setting, and the scenes running around the platform made the stage grow across the audience seats, which the audience was not ready for, but given the theme of the play, subtly covered for the act. A raised platform would look off in a blackbox theater, whereas in this show, two feet from the ground with a wall backdrop overlooking a field of grass, it was almost bare with occasional spotlight as intended. The characters wore dull pale beige-colored clothes and spoke about love, successfully disheartening the innocent viewers as a preparation for scenes ahead, brutal and provocative. Adding drama, the portion of the wall above the audience was a screen projection stated the scene timeline, where without it, the setting look like a family trapped in an asylum all together with the costumes.
With great fevor, the first scene successfully captured a pacified environment, which later at the end of the play, turned out to be a shout of cry for a better life in the Philippines. It was a story in the period of the longest-serving president, Ferdinand Marcos, in the Philippines, told in a setting many can relate to – the family. Themes of the family covered parents, children, love, security, education, marriage, independence. In the show, the family is uniquely at a position of comfort by period standards with basic needs namely, a house, meals, education, transport, and leisure time. Characters relive polarized family roles: the father attached to daughters; a mother wanting to protect her children from the angst of another member even though she herself could not resolve her own lack of protection; an adult children distress in their family issues while evident of her higher education; and working with a similarly educated non-family member becoming part of the family.
Brutal plays are uncomfortable and scary, a psychological thriller. It is nonetheless an opportunity to learn how violence in reenacted without actors getting actually hurt such in the likes of techniques on blood stains and objects of illusion like a mime play with background sound effects. Kisapmata was executed as a graphic play of the emotions and message of underserved. The choice of characters looked well on stage with their built and difficult emotions played well. Unexpectedly, the play ran long repeating dialogue that frustrated audience – a reaction appreciated only at the end with the realization of a social message and purpose.
The end of the show flashing the statement about Filipino patriotism as abrupt as it is like a punch on the show positively helped the vivid scenes and heaviness of the play loosened just in time at the end prompting the audience to release from the heaviness and divert mental attention back at the wider society.
Press conference followed entitled with a panel of two characters and two production member, which helped build relations among the audience as each shared their sentiments on the show like a close-knit community. As the play was inspired by a work of a National Artist for Literature, one could contemplate how the show could be adjusted for the younger audience, particularly in high school, as the story itself is a common theme, at least in my Filipino literature class in high school, where we read the works of great Filipino literature for book studies. What would happen to the audience if the conference was not placed, and what happens if there is a conference to facilitate the values of the show?
The play used dialogues that we mostly see in Filipino households, but on how it is a representation of the Marcos administration, is subtle unless one knows the history. With the press conference, the production members and directors took the opportunity to emphasize how guidance is needed to carry on appropriate mindset when leaving a theater show. It is a statement on social responsibility and that the producers are well-aware of it and hope that audience would learn similarly.
The audience exchanges in the conference were outstanding similarly. One focused more on how characters as realistic as it is where people can become more humane themselves without blaming others, as in the story, all the characters showed positive and negative emotions. Where are the neighbors of the family to check on concerns? One exclaimed in the conference raising the logic on the destructive nature of the family in the play. One in the audience was a reporter who shared insights by throwing more questions on the values she noticed. Is it love or lack thereof? Why did the man made more efforts in the marriage? The last responder in the audience was so emotional it really showed in her face, but she successfully delivered a good message reminding how the stage was open without walls for characters to get out from the heavy situation.
The theatrical promotion starting with fantasy like statements like “once upon a time in a family of love and bliss... the daughter fell in love with a man... suddenly the home is threatened.” is psychologically disturbing once one sees the show and it is intended to.
How often do family members get involved in justice issues in society, as much as how relationships play in the smallest unit of society, the family? Despite the comforts of household resources, the family is unsettled in a social sense. Kisapmata is one to see, going deep in family sentiments and how they worked out with love, or lack of understanding thereof.
The show will run from March 7, 2025 to March 31, 2025 at Tanghalang Ignacio Jimenez in CCP, Pasay City.
Review by Abigail Ko
Mga Komento
Mag-post ng isang Komento